By HUNTER GREENE

I just finished a book called Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson. His book is mostly about some of the injustices that he has faced and challenged as a defense attorney. Towards the end of the book, Stevenson meets an elderly lady outside of a court room that had lost her grandson in a murder a few years prior.
Although she had lost her grandson, she had committed to coming to the courthouse every day to give people a shoulder to lean on and someone to cry with after families and friends left court. She tells Stevenson, “I decided that I was supposed to be here to catch some of the stones people cast at each other.”
In John 8, we find the story of the woman caught in the midst of adultery, and her accusers have brought her before Jesus to condemn and stone her. Verses 6-11 say, “This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
I have often wondered which side our churches are on today. Are we like the religious leaders of the day with stones in hand ready to condemn and kill every person that we find with sin in their lives? Or are we like Jesus who calmly bends down in the midst of the hatred of the self-righteous and gently receives the woman’s condemnation with love and mercy? Regarding the Church’s lack of mercy, Stevenson writes, “Today, our self-righteousness, our fear, and our anger have caused even the Christians to hurl stones at the people who fall down, even when we know we should forgive or show compassion…we have to be stone catchers.”
Far too often, I find myself going from person to person pointing out the specks in their eyes so I don’t have to acknowledge the plank in my own eye. I find myself looking for the flaws and mistakes of others that will ultimately make myself feel better about my own insecurities. I find myself comparing myself to other Christians that don’t attend church as much as I do so I feel like God will love me more. If we are honest, I would say we all struggle with this.
I am afraid that we have laid down our crosses that embody the mercy and love of Christ and exchanged them for heavy stones of judgement and condemnation. I am in no way condoning the sin of this world. However, I think the first step in acknowledging that others deserve mercy and grace just as much as we do is looking into our own dirty hearts and admitting that we are broken and flawed as well. I have come to realize that God has not given me the responsibility of making people live sinless lives. He sent Jesus to become the righteousness that we could never be. I believe it is my job to show people the same love, mercy, and grace that God has shown me, regardless of who they are or where they are at.
James 2:13 says, “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” God shows mercy to those who also show mercy. So as the Pharisees of our day pick up their stones of judgement to condemn those considered disposable in our society, let us stand in front of the condemned and catch the stones meant to kill. Because in doing so, we give those dead in their transgressions the same mercy that gave us life and the same redemptive, transformational power that enabled us to go and sin no more.
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene.)